Helge Achenbach , born in 1952, was the mighty mastermind of the German art scene. As an art consultant, he helped large commercial enterprises, banks, insurance companies and wealthy private individuals with the development of art collections. In 2014, Achenbach was arrested at Düsseldorf Airport, on the return trip from the training camp of the German national football team in Brazil, which he had also equipped with art. The charge: millions of fraud. He is said to have falsified invoices to several of his customers, including the Aldi heir Berthold Albrecht and his wife Babette. After four years in prison, he pretends to be a purified man, and in a new book entitled "Self-Destruction," he works the past (see box below).
SPIEGEL: Mr. Achenbach, what should I spend today on a good picture?
Achenbach: Not always very much. Recently in Cologne I discovered a great painter with Nigerian roots, Jadé Fadojutimi. It could become something. A picture cost 17,000 euros. But it's not about the money, it's about recognizing the potential.
SPIEGEL: What would you have said earlier, before you were sentenced to six years in prison for fraud in 18 cases?
Achenbach: I would have looked at you closely. I would have said to a young entrepreneur, buy artists of your generation. An Opi I would have said, come on, we'll get you a horny Beckmann. But it would always have had museum quality. If you're a ten-billion-dollar-old pepper-sack, you can invest a billion in art.
SPIEGEL: You invented the profession of art consultant. A mix of investment advisers and interior decorators.
Achenbach: That with the interior decorator is a joke. I ensured the perfect interaction between art and architecture. That can go in the pants, as in 1986 with Gerhard Richter and the then Victoria insurance, now Ergo. The pictures "Victoria I" and "Victoria II" are great, worth millions today. Gerhard did not like the brownish marble walls of the company headquarters, which he did not find particularly aesthetic. At the vernissage he dropped himself back into a pool of water so he would not have to stay at the party. Before leaving, he said: "Helge, take care that better architecture is created." Then I brought the best architects in the world to Germany: Richard Meier, Jacques Herzog, David Chipperfield. Those were unknown young men at that time.
SPIEGEL: At your most successful times, you had 50 million in your bank account, you were celebrated as a "art pope", you flew in a private jet, operated seven branches of your art consultancy, owned three trendy bars and at times even became president of the football club Fortuna Düsseldorf. You must have felt as if the world belonged to you.
Achenbach: Yes, that's how I felt. That was my big problem.
SPIEGEL: And then came the eight-square-meter prison cell in the Moers-Kapellen prison.
Achenbach: It was as if I had hit a concrete pier on a motorbike at 300 kilometers per hour. The consciousness is gone, at some point you wake up and ask: Where am I actually here? In prison! I was scared, could not sleep anymore, got it with my heart.
SPIEGEL: Did you learn from jail?
Achenbach: Some say that I have not been purified just because I keep recounting how well I have invested my clients' money. What else should I say? That I messed up their money? No, who was my customer, who was lucky that he could buy great artists. The value of the collection, which I built for the Aldi heir Berthold Albrecht, rose from 120 million to 400 million euros today.
SPIEGEL: But they still cheated on him for just under 16 million euros by preparing bills. Recently, there was again a big scandal on the art market, the Berlin gallery owner Michael Schultz is said to have sold a fake judge's painting. Is the art market particularly vulnerable to fraud?
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Helge Achenbach
Self-destruction: Confessions of an art dealer
Publishing company:
Riva
Pages:
240
Price:
EUR 19.99
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Achenbach: The entry of investment bankers, punters and brokers into the art market led to a complete brutalization. Everything is controlled at the stock exchange. If you buy stock with insider information, the regulator will come to your door immediately and arrest you. The art market is easier to manipulate. And the Schultz just wanted to pee with the big ones. He probably thought: I have a judge here, I'll let him do it again in China, then I can sell it twice.
SPIEGEL: You were not quite as rich as your customers, but you should have been far more generous. Did you spend morbid money?
Achenbach: As a PR gag I flew to a meeting on a monday with Andreas Gursky in a helicopter to VW in Wolfsburg. I got an order from VW for Gursky. All directors were in session, the meeting lasted until 2 pm. At 2:00 pm we circled the board storm with the helicopter - so that everyone knew that the Achenbach and the Gursky are here now, then we landed. That was part of the game. My life was a material battle.
SPIEGEL: According to media reports, you plan a comeback as an art consultant. Do you really believe that someone will ever trust you again?
Achenbach: Let me be careful, there are a few friendly entrepreneurs who feel the need to help me. They say, "We want to make you debt free again. Let's see how we can do it." I am hopefull.
SPIEGEL: It's no problem for you to win people over. Although you are a million dollar fraudster, many people like you. Are you less criminal when you take from the rich?
Achenbach: nonsense! I worked legally for 40 years, only cheated on three customers at the end. I was always the nice one. And I am able to convey that I regret. I am now even booked as a lecturer, as I speak then in front of entrepreneurs about failure and how to come up again. When I read my new book, people cried because it touched my story so much. Finally, I also cried again.